Electrician FAQs

Yes. Our your city emergency line is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. Call (888) 592-6466 for no power, sparking outlets, burning smells, breakers that will not reset or any electrical fault you do not want to leave overnight.

Routine repairs in your city are usually same-day or next-morning. Emergency calls are dispatched immediately and we give you an honest arrival window on the phone rather than a vague four-hour block.

Small jobs such as outlet or switch installation are typically a flat price. Larger work like a panel upgrade or a rewire is quoted after we look at the existing service. Either way you get the number in writing before the work starts, and it does not move unless the scope does.

Yes, on any work that requires one — service and panel upgrades, rewires, new circuits in some jurisdictions, and most commercial work. We pull the permit and schedule the inspection as part of the job.

We cover your city itself, its surrounding neighbourhoods and the towns nearby. Ascot Electricians works across California, so if you are just outside the city limits, call (888) 592-6466 and we will confirm coverage in a minute.

Yes. EV charger installation in your city includes a load calculation on your existing service, the dedicated circuit, and the Level 2 charger, Tesla Wall Connector or NEMA 14-50 outlet. If the panel cannot carry it, we will tell you what the upgrade costs before you commit.

Three common causes: too much load on one circuit, a short somewhere on the run, or a failing breaker. A breaker that trips instantly on reset usually means a short and should not be reset repeatedly. Call (888) 592-6466 and we will trace it.

Both. Residential work covers repairs, remodels, rewires and installations. Commercial work covers offices, retail, restaurants and warehouses in your city, and we schedule it outside your trading hours where we can.

It is not automatically dangerous, but it is a limit. Fuse boxes cap what you can add, insurers increasingly ask about them, and replacements get harder to source. Most your city homeowners upgrade when they add an EV charger, an AC unit or a kitchen.

Yes, including knob and tube and aluminium branch-circuit replacement. We rewire your city homes in stages so you keep power in the rooms you are living in, and we work with your schedule rather than shutting the house down for a week.

Burning smells, smoke, sparking or hot outlets, a breaker that trips instantly every time you reset it, exposed conductors, water in a panel, or a total loss of power that is not affecting your neighbours. Any of those, call (888) 592-6466 now rather than waiting.

Yes — nights, weekends and holidays. (888) 592-6466 reaches a person, not a message box, and we will tell you on the call whether this is something you should shut off at the panel before we arrive.

That usually points at your service entrance, main breaker or a lost leg on the incoming service rather than a utility outage. Stop resetting the main and call an emergency electrician in your city — repeated resets on a fault make things worse.

Switch off the breaker feeding that outlet if you can identify it safely, do not use it, and call (888) 592-6466. Do not pull the cover plate off yourself. A burning smell means heat, and heat in a wall cavity is how electrical fires start.

It depends on whether the meter, service entrance and grounding all get replaced alongside the panel, and on what the utility requires at your address. We price it after looking at the existing service — panel-only swaps sit at the low end, full 100 to 200 amp service upgrades with a new meter-main at the high end.

Most residential panel upgrades in your city are a one-day job with the power off for a good part of it. Where the utility has to disconnect and reconnect the service drop, the schedule follows their availability, which we coordinate.

If you are adding an EV charger, a heat pump, a second AC unit or an ADU, usually yes. If you are simply replacing an obsolete panel and your load is unchanged, a like-for-like service can be enough. We run the load calculation rather than guessing.

Almost always, once you are doing any meaningful work. Fuse boxes cap capacity, have no AFCI or GFCI protection at the board, and complicate insurance and resale on your city homes.

Less than most people expect. We work circuit by circuit and stage the job so you keep power in the rooms you are actually using. Access is usually through attic, crawlspace and small targeted openings rather than opening every wall.

Two-prong outlets throughout, a fuse box, cloth-covered cable in the basement, warm switch plates, or lights that dim whenever an appliance starts. Knob and tube and aluminium branch circuits are the two that most often force the decision.

Not always. Where a full replacement is not practical, approved connectors at every device and junction are an accepted remediation. We will tell you which route makes sense for your house and what each one costs.

Yes. Most your city rewires are done with the family still in place. We agree in advance which rooms lose power on which days.

That is the first thing we check. A load calculation against your existing service tells us whether a Level 2 charger fits as-is, needs load management, or needs a service upgrade. Plenty of your city homes are fine on 100 amps with load sharing.

A straightforward garage install next to the panel is a few hours. Long runs to a detached garage, exterior pedestals or installs that need a panel upgrade take longer, and we tell you which one you are before we start.

Yes — Tesla Wall Connector and Universal Wall Connector, plus every common Level 2 brand, and NEMA 14-50 or 6-50 outlets if you would rather plug in a mobile connector.

Yes. Either with two chargers on load sharing, or a single unit you move between vehicles. Load sharing is usually cheaper than upgrading the whole service.

It depends whether you want the whole house or just essential circuits — fridge, furnace, well pump, a few lights and outlets. Essential-circuit setups are considerably cheaper and cover most your city outage scenarios.

It is the device that disconnects you from the utility and starts the generator when the power drops, then switches back when it returns. It is also the safety element that stops your generator backfeeding the grid.

Yes — with an inlet box and a breaker interlock kit at the panel. Never run a portable generator through a suicide cord into an outlet; that backfeeds the line and it is how utility crews get hurt.

Standby units need periodic exercise cycles, oil and filter changes and battery checks. We set up the schedule at installation and can maintain it afterwards.

Rule of thumb is ceiling height divided by two for spacing in feet, adjusted for the room's job. We lay it out on paper first and show you before we cut a single hole.

2700K for warm living spaces, 3000K as a good all-rounder, 3500 to 4000K for kitchens, garages and workshops. Mixing temperatures in one open-plan room is the single most common regret we get called back about.

Usually yes. Slim canless LEDs go into very shallow cavities, and vaulted ceilings can often be done with the right housings and a careful cable route.

Yes — path, uplighting, security, soffit and low-voltage landscape systems, with the transformers, timers and photocells wired properly rather than run off extension leads.

Kitchens, bathrooms, garages, unfinished basements, crawlspaces, laundry areas, outdoors and anywhere near a sink. If your your city home predates the requirement, adding them is quick and inexpensive.

Yes. Most rooms can take an extra outlet with no visible damage, fed from a nearby circuit or a new dedicated one where the load requires it.

A warm or discoloured receptacle means a poor connection making heat, usually a back-stabbed wire or a worn contact. Stop using it and call (888) 592-6466 — this is one of the more common starting points for electrical fires.

It is a circuit serving one appliance only. Microwaves, dishwashers, window AC units, freezers, space heaters and workshop tools all benefit, and some are required to have one.

Only if it is fan-rated. A standard fixture box is not built for the dynamic load of a spinning fan and will eventually loosen. We install a fan-rated box and brace as part of every install.

Yes. If there is only one switch leg we either pull an extra conductor or fit a compatible remote or smart control that separates the two.

A replacement onto an existing fan-rated box is under an hour. A new fan where no fixture exists takes longer because of the box, bracing and switch wiring.

Damp-rated for covered patios, wet-rated for exposed areas. An indoor fan on a patio will corrode and become a hazard.

Most often a tripped GFCI upstream that also feeds the dead outlets, or a failed connection in one device that opens the rest of the run. Check every GFCI in the house first, then call (888) 592-6466.

A brief dip is normal on motor start. Persistent flickering points to a loose neutral, an undersized circuit or a service-level problem — and a loose neutral is worth taking seriously rather than living with.

There is a diagnostic visit charge for troubleshooting, quoted up front, and it goes toward the repair if you have us do the work. Tracing an intermittent fault properly takes time and we would rather do it than guess.

No. A breaker that trips immediately on reset is telling you there is a fault on the circuit. Leave it off and get it traced.

Either we run a neutral to the box, or we fit a smart switch designed for no-neutral installs. Running the neutral is more reliable long term, and in most your city homes it is easier than people assume.

Yes. Most doorbell problems are an undersized old transformer. We fit the right transformer and wiring so the camera does not brown out every time it records.

Yes — Cat6 data drops, structured wiring panels and clean network closets, run alongside the electrical rather than tangled through it.

It should. We specify and wire systems so the wall switch always works locally, with the app as a layer on top rather than the only way to turn a light on.

Yes — nights, early mornings and weekends. Most commercial work we do in your city is scheduled so the space is open and trading normally the next morning.

Yes. Office electrical installation, retail and restaurant fit-outs, new circuits, panels, data and lighting, coordinated with your GC and the inspection schedule.

Yes. High-bay LED retrofits usually pay back quickly on energy and lamp replacement alone, and we can phase the work aisle by aisle.

Yes — scheduled electrical maintenance with panel thermal checks, lighting sweeps and priority response for your city commercial clients.

Yes — kitchens, bathrooms, additions, ADUs, garage conversions and basements, from rough-in through trim, coordinated with your other trades.

More than most people expect: two small-appliance circuits, plus dedicated circuits for the dishwasher, disposal, microwave and refrigerator, and often the range and hood as well.

Yes. Hot tub and spa installation includes the disconnect, the GFCI protection and the correctly sized feeder — this is not a job for an extension cord or a shared circuit.

For most your city homes with EVs, heat pumps, smart devices and expensive electronics, yes. A panel-mounted surge protective device costs far less than one replaced HVAC control board.